Slip-on garment



g- 1950 1.. A. SPENGLER 2,517,046

SLIP-0N GARMENT Filed Oct. 25, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 24 \8 n'rron EY Patented Aug. 1, 1950 "UNITED STATES '2 ATENT OFFICE This invention relates to garments designed for quick and easy adjustment and especially adapted for wear by patients, and more particularly by bedridden patients, and one object is to provide a garment which can be readily slipped on and off, and especially without the necessity of raising or turning the recumbent patient.

A further object is to provide a garment of this type especially for hospital use which will dispense with buttons, fasteners or tie-strings, thereby not only facilitating the work of attendants, but reducing laundering and repairing costs.

A further object is to provide a garment of this type which may be withdrawn from under a patient quickly when necessary without lifting or turning the patient, and without danger of ripping the garment.

A further object is to provide a garment of this type comprising a minimum number of parts and requiring the minimum of sewing in finishing the garment, and having the maximum scour ity against ripping at the seams.

In carrying the invention into elfect I provide a gown of any desired length comprising a onepiece front panel with armhole and neck cutouts, and a divided back-panel, preferably in two like pieces, with similar armhole and neck cut cuts the back-panel being sewed to the front panel from the neck cut-outs to the armhole cut-outs on the shoulder line, and from the lower margin of the armhole cut-out down to the lower margin of the gown. Short sleeves are sewed into the armholes in the usual manner and a single piece of binding strip or tape is sewed around the neck margin, thus dispensing entirely with a yoke piece. The cut-outs for the neck part of the gown are made sufficiently large to permit the wearers head to pass through freely, and the short length seam at the back dispenses entirely with fastening means.

The purpose of the divided back-panel is to permit withdrawing the two parts from under a patient and spreading same outward practically at right angles and for folding over the front panel and up to the shoulders as may be necessary. To facilitate this withdrawal and folding and to avoid tearing the material or ripping of the seam a wide-angled gusset piece is inserted at the end of the back-panel seam and which in the normal use of the gown is free to fold into plaits.

The back-panel is completed before joining it to the front-panel and the first operation is to join the two parts by stitching the short seam irom the neck cut-outs to a point approximately 2 on a line with the lower margins of the armholes, and then the adjacent longitudinal mar gins are folded and stitched in a straight line to provide the adjacent hemmed edges in alignment with the short seam. The gusset piece is then applied at the end of the back-panel seam. This piece is preferably of rectangular or such angular shape and size that when folded into a triangular shape will have adjacent margins forming a right -angle and when inserted at the end of the short seam the apex of the right-angled sides of the folded gusset will be on the panel seam with the hemmed edges of the panel pieces between the right-angled margins of the folded gusset. In sewing the gusset in place the hemmed edges of the back-panel are spread apart and held between the folds at an angle corresponding to the angle of the gusset so that when the *stitch ing is completed the gusset and panel margins will be superimposed. Thus when the gown is worn the back-panel parts maybe spread out to a wide angle limited only by the angle of the gusset and without placing any strain on the back-panel seam.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a full length view of the back oi the gown showing the seam joining the parts of the back-panel and the plaited reinforcing gus set at the end of the seam.

Figure 2 is a view of the back of the gown showing the gusset spread out.

Figure 3 a longitudinal section on a larger scale on the line 3- -3 of Figure 2 showing "one form of the gusset and seam reinforcement.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing a modification of the gusset and seam reinfcrce merit.

Figures 5 and 6 are plan views illustrating, re spectively, the two forms of gusset and seam reinforcin'g pieces.

Figure 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional on the line 7-4 of Figure 2, and

Figure 8 is a view similar to Figure 7 showing the back section and gusset reinforcement before final stitching.

Referring to the drawings, 10 indicates the front panel of the gown, II and I2 the back-panel halves, and the three parts having cut-outs for the neck and armholes. The panels are sewed together by shoulder seams l3 and side seams l4, and the sleeves are sewed into the armholes by seams IS. The back panel pieces are sewed together by seam I6 which extends from the neckhole to a point between the shoulder blades approximately on a line with the lower margins of the armholes. The neckhole is bound by a strip or tape IT, a yoke for the neck and shoulders being entirely dispensed with.

At the lower end of the seam 6 a wide angled gusset 18, Figures 5 and 6, is inserted. The gusset piece is of rectangular or other angular shape, preferably hexagonal, having long side l9 and 2%] of like angles and two short parallel sides 2!, and designed for folding on the line 22 with the hemmed margins of the four sides l9 and 20 superimposed with the apex 23 at the point indicated in broken lines in Figure 5.

In the preferred form the gusset is provided with a tongue 24, Figure 5, extending from the sides 2!! and of a length to cover the seam I6 as seen in Figure 3. A modification of this arrangement is shown in Figures 4 and 6 where a length of tape 25 is employed instead of the tongue extension 24, and the gusset piece is formed with an apex 23 so that when folded on the line 22 the margins of the gusset will be completely superimposed.

The gusset piece is of a width to permit drawing the back-panel parts H and I2 from under the wearer to an extent practically at right angles as seen in Figure 2, and when the gown is in the normal position on the wearer, the gusset is free to fold into plaits It, as seen in Figure 1.

In the manufacture of the gown, the free margins of the material for the front and back panels are hemmed as seen in Figure 1, and the side, shoulder and sleeve seams are made in any approved manner. As indicated in Figure 5, the gusset piece I 8 including its tongue 24 has its margins turned for a hem as indicated by the broken lines 26. The seam It joining the backpanel halves is preferably made by stitching 21 as seen on an enlarged scale in Figures 7 and 8, and then the margins of the panel parts H and [2 are turned for the hems 2B and secured by stitching 29. The gusset it? with its tongue 24 is then applied to the panel parts II and [2 which are held apart at approximately a right-angle as seen in Figure 2 and secured as shown in Figures 3 and 7 by stitching 3B which extends along the broken line 26 of Figure 5 so that when the panel parts H and 52 are brought back into alignment as in Figure 1, the gusset will fold into plaits l8. When employing the tape reinforcement 25 instead of the gusset tongue 24-, the tape may be attached to the gusset as indicated in Figure 6 and applied over the back-panel seam It in the same manner as the gusset and tongue of Figure 5. Or the tape may be separately stitched to the back-panel over the seam l6 and then the gusset piece may be applied by folding on the line 22 to overlap the panel parts I]! and I2 and tape 25 as seen in Figure 4 and stitched thereto by sewing along the hem line 26' of Figure 6.

From the foregoing description it will be observed that the gusset piece I8 is not employed merely to fill an angle or space between two panel parts in the usual manner, but is specially shaped to form when folded for application, a right-angled piece as seen in Figure 2, and which when applied to the panel parts If and I2 will form a right angle 3| of the hemmed margins 32 and that when the panel parts are drawn into a normal position as in Figure l, the gusset will fold into plaits [8 which, when necessary, will spread to permit the panel parts II and 12 to be withdrawn and overlapped on the front panel as shown in Figure 2.

What I claim is:

1. As a new article of manufacture, a slip-on garment having a front-panel, a back-panel divided from a point approximately in alignment with the lower margins of the armholes, a wide-angled gusset piece inserted at the point of division of said back-panel and adapted to fold into plaits, said gusset piece having two of its margins forming approximately a right-angle with the vertex at said point of division, and the adjacent margins of the back-panel and said right-angled margins of the gusset piece being superimposed and stitched together along the superimposed margins.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a slip-on garment having a front-panel, a back-panel divided from a point approximately in alignment with the lower margins of the armholes, an insert at the point of division of the back-panel folded to form approximately right-angled margins with the vertex thereof at said point of division, and the margins of the back-panel adjacent the right-angled margins of the insert being laid between the folds thereof and stitched together along said margins, and said insert being adapted to fold into plaits when the back-panel margins are brought into alignment.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a slip-on garment having a one-piece front-panel, a twopiece back-panel, said panels having neck and armhole cut-outs, and said back-panel pieces having a middle vertical seam extending from the neck cut-out to a point approximately in alignment with the lower margins of the armhole cut-outs, an angular insert folded to present right-angled margins with the vertex thereof at the end of the back-panel seam, a strip extending from the insert piece over the length of said seam, and the margins of the back-panel pieces being laid between the right-angled margins of the insert and stitched together along said margins.

LILLIAN A. SPENGLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 326,749 Kent Sept. 22, 1885 971,992 Hampton Oct. 4, 1910 

